I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum... And I'm all out of bubblegum.

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Originally Posted by silentstriker

If we ever get to a point where we are living again on a planet where no man has walked on the moon, I'm going to be pissed. It's being present for the beginning of the dark ages.

I was just wondering this - how many men are left who have walked on the moon?

>>>>>>WHHOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHH>>>>>>Fascist Dictator of the Heath Davis Appreciation SocietySupporting Petone's Finest since the very start - Iain O'Brien
Also Supporting the All Time #1 Batsman of All Time Ever - Jacques Kallis and the much maligned Peter Siddle.

I've been asked if I would take a one way ticket to the moon or mars, and the answer would be an unequivocal yes.

The spirit of exploration, and finding and doing something that no one has done or found before is at the very core of what being a human is. If we lose that, we might as well go extinct as a species. There's a reason the Dark Ages are named as such. Neil Armstrong was just one man who got to do what he did on the backs of millions of people, scientists, engineers, politicians and others. But he represented the antithesis of the dark ages. We went to the moon for many reasons (most of which were not 'pure' exploration reasons), but nonetheless he represented everything that is great about human progress, pushing the limits, and being setting the standard for everyone to aspire to. I know so many people who went into science and engineering (even the biological sciences) because of what they saw on that day.

Neil, because of you, and others like you, the whole world collectively experienced the most important emotion that exists, a sense of awe and wonder. For as long as humankind exists, your name will be spoken of in the highest regard. Schoolchildren will learn it for as long as schools exist, and they will dream to be the next Neil Armstrong. Thank you for that hope, for providing us an ideal that all of us aspire to.

I am actually a little bit emotional right now, which I find very odd because even when someone like Arthur C Clarke (my favorite author) or Carl Sagan (though I was young) I never felt emotional (though I did feel sad).

Bloody hell. Ah well, Market Forces will get us back to the moon. Private industry will be in the vanguard of the next great exploration cycle. I'm not quite sure why, but apparently it is the case.

The problem is the prohibitive cost. Physics doesn't lie, and the fuel required is the fuel required. That's why the government has to bear the cost. Sure, we may have low earth orbit flights soon, but true space exploration will always be done by the government unless we come up with a radically new method of transport into space (e.g space elevator). Unfortunately, that's still a little beyond us at the moment and will require a bit of a breakthrough in materials engineering.

I hope I'm wrong of course, but I hated the space shuttle. The Saturn V was the biggest rocket in the history of mankind, and there is nothing on the drawing board to replace it. The Space Shuttle was fine for low earth orbit crap (wasn't nearly powerful enough to go much farther), and I suppose its better than nothing, but we need true deep space exploration. It's sad that it has been 40 years since a human being has escaped low earth orbit. It's been that long since we've even had the capability to escape low earth orbit. Hoping for a space race soon.

The future of humanity can't possibly be on this one rock, if it's to have a future at all.